Ever since the introduction of the capacitive touchscreen in the iPhone, we've been wondering how such a solution would be like with some kind of tactile feedback. The RIM BlackBerry Storm is the first phone to give some answers, as it offers a capacitive touchscreen with true tactile feedback, dubbed "ClickThrough".
We haven't tried the BlackBerry Storm yet, but Phonescoop has put together a comprehensive first look, which reveals that Research In Motion may have cranked out a new golden solution today. While the BlackBerry Storm uses hypersensitivity for some tasks, like navigating in the browser or menu, it takes advantage of its ClickThrough technology when doing tasks like pressing menu buttons and writing on software keyboards (using an accelerometer, the BlackBerry Storm switches from SureType in portrait mode to QWERTY in landscape mode).
According to Phonescoop, the BlackBerry Storm also has another neat feature: The QWERTY keyboard has a touch-and-hold shortcut for accessing accented versions of letters, which comes in handy for the many BlackBerry users who don't normally communicate in English.
What remains to be seen however, is how a touchscreen that actually encourages you to use it heavily for text input will react in the long run. Obviously, that's a completely new scenario introduced by the BlackBerry Storm. Hopefully it'll pass the test, and we'll let you know as soon as we've tested the BlackBerry Storm thoroughly.
That said, we guess a lot of you are already waiting for the first and best chance of getting your hands on the BlackBerry Storm yourselves. It should be released in early November 2008 on Verizon Wireless and Vodafone (Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand) for a reasonable price with a contract. Vodafone has already announced it'll be free with its most expensive data plan, so who knows, maybe Verizon Wireless will roll out some special plans for the BlackBerry Storm too when the release date gets closer.
The only thing missing now is BlackBerry Storm smartphones with multiple color and design schemes. Come on, RIM, go ahead and take that one last step and you're ready to rock the consumer world for real.
Also, make sure to check out our story outlining all the capabilities of the BlackBerry Storm here, and a comparison between the BlackBerry Storm, iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1 here, which all offer a capacitive touchscreen by the way.
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